Taco is asteroid #14917 and also known as 1994 AD₁₁. Taco measures 9.4 km in diameter. Taco’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.84 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.21, a period of revolution of 1’746 days, and an inclination of 12.4 degrees. Taco was discovered at the Kitt Peak Observatory during the course of the University of Arizona’s still ongoing Spacewatch Project, which is based at the Steward Observatory (on the University of Arizona’s campus, yet operating telescopes also at other observatories like Catalina Station, Mount Lemmon Observatory, or Kitt Peak Observatory), Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Taco is named after Kenneth Dale “Taco” Cockrell. He was born in 1950 and seemingly is still alive. He’s a retired pilot, engineer, and astronaut. He was born in Austin, Texas and had graduated from Rockdale High School, then for his bachelor from the University of Texas at Austin, and finally for his master from the University of West Florida. Kenneth Dale Cockrell from 1975 until 1987 was a navy pilot, first stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway, then was a test pilot, and finally stationed aboard the USS Constellation. After that, he joined the Aircraft Operations Division of the Johnson Space Center as a research pilot and in 1990 got chosen by the NASA, where he fulfilled many tasks. He flew on the five space shuttle missions STS-56, STS-69, STS-80, STS-98 and STS-111. Kenneth Dale Cockrell has got two children and lives in Friendswood, Texas. His recreational interests include sport flying as well as snow skiing and water skiing. He was called Taco by his fellow astronauts.

Because astronauts from time to time have to trust their lives to each other, so the nickname Taco is very unlikely to have been humiliating or insulting. Kenneth Dale Cockrell is a white Texan, so he probably got nicknamed after a food preference. So asteroid #14917 is a food theme asteroid representing tacos.